1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a plasma display panel having improved luminous efficiency and picture display quality.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, a plasma display panel (PDP) displays desired numbers, characters or graphic data using phosphors excited by plasma-generated ultraviolet (UV) rays.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional PDP, in which a front panel and a back panel are joined together.
Referring to FIG. 1, the front panel includes a front substrate 111, sustain electrode pairs 114 comprising Y electrodes 112 and X electrodes 113 formed on the front substrate 111, a front dielectric layer 115 covering the sustain electrode pairs 114, and a protective layer 116 covering the front dielectric layer 115. The Y electrodes 112 and the X electrodes 113 include transparent electrodes 112b, 113b, which are often formed of indium tin oxide (ITO), and metallic bus electrodes 112a, 113a, respectively.
The back panel includes a rear substrate 121, address electrodes 122 formed orthogonally to the sustain electrode pairs 114, a rear dielectric layer 123 covering the address electrodes 122, barrier walls 124 formed on the rear dielectric layer 123 to define light-emitting cells 126, and red, green and blue phosphor layers 125a, 125b and 125c arranged in respective light-emitting cells 126.
Discharge gas is enclosed in the discharge space partitioned by the barrier walls 124. While half of the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) rays may excite phosphors of the rear substrate 121 in a discharge cell during a discharge period, the remaining VUV rays may not excite phosphors.
To overcome this problem, Korean Published Application No. 2002-0027944 discloses a PDP having a phosphor layer on a front dielectric layer. In this patent, a phosphor layer is applied between dielectric layer and protective layer in the front panel. A brightness enhancement was obtained, but the low transparency and uniformity of the phosphor layer may be a problem.